Names

I read a list today of the top 100 names put out by the Social Security office it is always interesting to me. Our names can have power and we make them valuable.

Some names trigger in us memories of people. Some of those are good...some not so good. So we hold names as important parts of peoples lives. Some people chose to change their first names to reflect more of who they have become than a name that parents gave them when they were born. A friend of mine in the 60's changed her name to a name that had meaning to her. She said that everything someone called her new name...she was reminded of the new person she was becoming and the best came out in her.

I'm not going to list some of the more 'interesting' names that I know. However I'm sure we are all thinking of a few. Some names seem like they will be trials right at the start for a child to overcome.

My name, Barbara, is one of those late 40's early 50's popular names. I usually go by Bobbie which was what my parents called me all the time. I've known other Barbara named women. In fact had a rather funny conversation with a Barbara-Bobbie in Washington DC some years ago. Again I digress..

But what is the name that God knows us by? What name does God call. I think for all God's children it is beloved. As God's daughters and God's sons... It is the same.. Beloved...

hummm
Beloved....

That name whether male or female I think draws out in us the best of us. We are loved so what else do we need we have been named and claimed by God in our baptism... and called to baptism...and new life... every time our name is called.

God abide
Bobbie McGarey
@2004